xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/auditpipe.4 (revision 38f0b757fd84d17d0fc24739a7cda160c4516d81)
1.\" Copyright (c) 2006 Robert N. M. Watson
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25.\" $FreeBSD$
26.\"
27.Dd May 5, 2006
28.Dt AUDITPIPE 4
29.Os
30.Sh NAME
31.Nm auditpipe
32.Nd "pseudo-device for live audit event tracking"
33.Sh SYNOPSIS
34.Cd "options AUDIT"
35.Sh DESCRIPTION
36While audit trail files
37generated with
38.Xr audit 4
39and maintained by
40.Xr auditd 8
41provide a reliable long-term store for audit log information, current log
42files are owned by the audit daemon until terminated making them somewhat
43unwieldy for live monitoring applications such as host-based intrusion
44detection.
45For example, the log may be cycled and new records written to a new file
46without notice to applications that may be accessing the file.
47.Pp
48The audit facility provides an audit pipe facility for applications requiring
49direct access to live BSM audit data for the purposes of real-time
50monitoring.
51Audit pipes are available via a clonable special device,
52.Pa /dev/auditpipe ,
53subject to the permissions on the device node, and provide a
54.Qq tee
55of the audit event stream.
56As the device is clonable, more than one instance of the device may be opened
57at a time; each device instance will provide independent access to all
58records.
59.Pp
60The audit pipe device provides discrete BSM audit records; if the read buffer
61passed by the application is too small to hold the next record in the
62sequence, it will be dropped.
63Unlike audit data written to the audit trail, the reliability of record
64delivery is not guaranteed.
65In particular, when an audit pipe queue fills, records will be dropped.
66Audit pipe devices are blocking by default, but support non-blocking I/O,
67asynchronous I/O using
68.Dv SIGIO ,
69and polled operation via
70.Xr select 2
71and
72.Xr poll 2 .
73.Pp
74Applications may choose to track the global audit trail, or configure local
75preselection parameters independent of the global audit trail parameters.
76.Ss Audit Pipe Queue Ioctls
77The following ioctls retrieve and set various audit pipe record queue
78properties:
79.Bl -tag -width ".Dv AUDITPIPE_GET_MAXAUDITDATA"
80.It Dv AUDITPIPE_GET_QLEN
81Query the current number of records available for reading on the pipe.
82.It Dv AUDITPIPE_GET_QLIMIT
83Retrieve the current maximum number of records that may be queued for reading
84on the pipe.
85.It Dv AUDITPIPE_SET_QLIMIT
86Set the current maximum number of records that may be queued for reading on
87the pipe.
88The new limit must fall between the queue limit minimum and queue limit
89maximum queryable using the following two ioctls.
90.It Dv AUDITPIPE_GET_QLIMIT_MIN
91Query the lowest possible maximum number of records that may be queued for
92reading on the pipe.
93.It Dv AUDITPIPE_GET_QLIMIT_MAX
94Query the highest possible maximum number of records that may be queued for
95reading on the pipe.
96.It Dv AUDITPIPE_FLUSH
97Flush all outstanding records on the audit pipe; useful after setting initial
98preselection properties to delete records queued during the configuration
99process which may not match the interests of the user process.
100.It Dv AUDITPIPE_GET_MAXAUDITDATA
101Query the maximum size of an audit record, which is a useful minimum size for
102a user space buffer intended to hold audit records read from the audit pipe.
103.El
104.Ss Audit Pipe Preselection Mode Ioctls
105By default, the audit pipe facility configures pipes to present records
106matched by the system-wide audit trail, configured by
107.Xr auditd 8 .
108However, the preselection mechanism for audit pipes can be configured using
109alternative criteria, including pipe-local flags and naflags settings, as
110well as auid-specific selection masks.
111This allows applications to track events not captured in the global audit
112trail, as well as limit records presented to those of specific interest to
113the application.
114.Pp
115The following ioctls configure the preselection mode on an audit pipe:
116.Bl -tag -width ".Dv AUDITPIPE_GET_PRESELECT_MODE"
117.It Dv AUDITPIPE_GET_PRESELECT_MODE
118Return the current preselect mode on the audit pipe.
119The ioctl argument should be of type
120.Vt int .
121.It Dv AUDITPIPE_SET_PRESELECT_MODE
122Set the current preselection mode on the audit pipe.
123The ioctl argument should be of type
124.Vt int .
125.El
126.Pp
127Possible preselection mode values are:
128.Bl -tag -width ".Dv AUDITPIPE_PRESELECT_MODE_TRAIL"
129.It Dv AUDITPIPE_PRESELECT_MODE_TRAIL
130Use the global audit trail preselection parameters to select records for the
131audit pipe.
132.It Dv AUDITPIPE_PRESELECT_MODE_LOCAL
133Use local audit pipe preselection; this model is similar to the global audit
134trail configuration model, consisting of global flags and naflags parameters,
135as well as a set of per-auid masks.
136These parameters are configured using further ioctls.
137.El
138.Pp
139After changing the audit pipe preselection mode, records selected under
140earlier preselection configuration may still be in the audit pipe queue.
141The application may flush the current record queue after changing the
142configuration to remove possibly undesired records.
143.Ss Audit Pipe Local Preselection Mode Ioctls
144The following ioctls configure the preselection parameters used when an audit
145pipe is configured for the
146.Dv AUDITPIPE_PRESELECT_MODE_LOCAL
147preselection mode.
148.Bl -tag -width ".Dv AUDITPIPE_GET_PRESELECT_NAFLAGS"
149.It Dv AUDITPIPE_GET_PRESELECT_FLAGS
150Retrieve the current default preselection flags for attributable events on
151the pipe.
152These flags correspond to the
153.Va flags
154field in
155.Xr audit_control 5 .
156The ioctl argument should be of type
157.Vt u_int .
158.It Dv AUDITPIPE_SET_PRESELECT_FLAGS
159Set the current default preselection flags for attributable events on the
160pipe.
161These flags correspond to the
162.Va flags
163field in
164.Xr audit_control 5 .
165The ioctl argument should be of type
166.Vt u_int .
167.It Dv AUDITPIPE_GET_PRESELECT_NAFLAGS
168Retrieve the current default preselection flags for non-attributable events
169on the pipe.
170These flags correspond to the
171.Va naflags
172field in
173.Xr audit_control 5 .
174The ioctl argument should be of type
175.Vt u_int .
176.It Dv AUDITPIPE_SET_PRESELECT_NAFLAGS
177Set the current default preselection flags for non-attributable events on the
178pipe.
179These flags correspond to the
180.Va naflags
181field in
182.Xr audit_control 5 .
183The ioctl argument should be of type
184.Vt u_int .
185.It Dv AUDITPIPE_GET_PRESELECT_AUID
186Query the current preselection masks for a specific auid on the pipe.
187The ioctl argument should be of type
188.Vt "struct auditpipe_ioctl_preselect" .
189The auid to query is specified via the
190.Va ap_auid
191field of type
192.Vt au_id_t ;
193the mask will be returned via
194.Va ap_mask
195of type
196.Vt au_mask_t .
197.It Dv AUDITPIPE_SET_PRESELECT_AUID
198Set the current preselection masks for a specific auid on the pipe.
199Arguments are identical to
200.Dv AUDITPIPE_GET_PRESELECT_AUID ,
201except that the caller should properly initialize the
202.Va ap_mask
203field to hold the desired preselection mask.
204.It Dv AUDITPIPE_DELETE_PRESELECT_AUID
205Delete the current preselection mask for a specific auid on the pipe.
206Once called, events associated with the specified auid will use the default
207flags mask.
208The ioctl argument should be of type
209.Vt au_id_t .
210.It Dv AUDITPIPE_FLUSH_PRESELECT_AUID
211Delete all auid specific preselection specifications.
212.El
213.Sh EXAMPLES
214The
215.Xr praudit 1
216utility
217may be directly executed on
218.Pa /dev/auditpipe
219to review the default audit trail.
220.Sh SEE ALSO
221.Xr poll 2 ,
222.Xr select 2 ,
223.Xr audit 4 ,
224.Xr audit_control 5 ,
225.Xr audit 8 ,
226.Xr auditd 8
227.Sh HISTORY
228The OpenBSM implementation was created by McAfee Research, the security
229division of McAfee Inc., under contract to Apple Computer Inc.\& in 2004.
230It was subsequently adopted by the TrustedBSD Project as the foundation for
231the OpenBSM distribution.
232.Pp
233Support for kernel audit first appeared in
234.Fx 6.2 .
235.Sh AUTHORS
236The audit pipe facility was designed and implemented by
237.An Robert Watson Aq rwatson@FreeBSD.org .
238.Pp
239The Basic Security Module (BSM) interface to audit records and audit event
240stream format were defined by Sun Microsystems.
241.Sh BUGS
242See the
243.Xr audit 4
244manual page for information on audit-related bugs and limitations.
245.Pp
246The configurable preselection mechanism mirrors the selection model present
247for the global audit trail.
248It might be desirable to provided a more flexible selection model.
249.Pp
250The per-pipe audit event queue is fifo, with drops occurring if either the
251user thread provides in sufficient for the record on the queue head, or on
252enqueue if there is insufficient room.
253It might be desirable to support partial reads of records, which would be
254more compatible with buffered I/O as implemented in system libraries, and to
255allow applications to select which records are dropped, possibly in the style
256of preselection.
257